Storing & sharing favourite recipes & food information

Bran Brack – Irish Tea Bread

This is a very old recipe the original of which my mother still has, written out in my childhood handwriting. I was probably about eight, or so – I seem to remember that it came from the Girl Guides, but I might be wrong! It is called a Tea Bread: both made with tea and eaten for tea. Bran Brack is also sometimes known as Bara Brith or Barm Brack – and before you ask, I know that bran is not listed below. (I haven’t missed an ingredient from the original recipe when I typed it in!)

It is really important not to omit the soaking in tea, preferably overnight: essential for re-hydrating and plumping up the dried fruit. Providing you have thought ahead and done this Bran Brack is a simple and quick cake to make and is very moist with a high proportion of dried mixed fruit. The quantity of fruit could be reduced but it is this generous amount that makes Bran Brack so delicious. The tea needs to be fairly strong: strain off tea left over in the teapot until there is enough to make a cake! I use a standard, everyday tea: we drink Sainsbury’s Red Label (preferably the loose version) which is Fairly Traded. (Substituting speciality teas could give a different flavour, but I have not experimented with this alternative.) Butcher, Baker has a recipe for Bara Brith including about 2tbsp marmalade, which sounds good, but have not tried it. A teaspoon of mixed spice could also be added for flavour. It is worth doubling the quantity to make a larger cake, or perhaps two cakes. Bran Brack keeps fairly well but once made it gets eaten very quickly. Bran Brack is a fat free cake/tea loaf. It is, however, delicious spread with butter, especially if eaten fresh and slightly warm. Please note that the original quantities were written as Imperial measurements and the metric is as close as I can get.

5 Responses

Hello, I found your website while looking for Irish tea bread recipes. It is a truly lovely site packed with fantastic recipes and now sits on my ‘Favorites Bar’. I share your love of cookery books and although l shall never need another one again l will probably keep collecting them anyway. Thank you for this immense labour of love!
—–Welcome Leo – thanks so much for your very kind words: I’m flattered!

I hope that my daughter will find this a good family recipe resource when she needs it (one of my original reasons behind starting the site) but I am glad that others are enjoying the recipes too. I know I have more cookery books than I will ever need, but I still can’t pass on by when I see a secondhand/charity shop or sales stall and the bargains are always the most satisfying finds!

I hope you will find more you like on my site – you can subscribe on the right hand side of this page and WordPress will deliver to your email address. If you make any recipes please leave a comment to let me know how you get on.

Hi, I made this Bran Brack but realised as I measured out the sugar that 4oz is not 215g more like 114g so be careful if you are measuring in grams. Otherwise this is a great recipe which all the family loved.
—–Hello Maria
As you have probably guessed it is a typo and should have been 115g. I have updated the recipe.
Thanks for letting me know.
h/e

I can’t find any selfraising flour . so what can i do? can i add quick rising yeast to the flour and how much.
—–Thanks for your query Dennis
Apologies for the delayed reply. I have been on holiday.
Self Raising flour (Self rising flour in the USA, I believe) is unavailable in some countries. The solution is to use Baking Powder as a Raising Agent, adding it to the Plain Flour. Yeast is a different type of raising agent entirely and I would not use it here. Advice and quantities can be found online such as here at BBC Good Food, though I have not used the information myself and afraid I cannot advise you further regarding this recipe.
I do hope that this information is helpful.
hopeeternal

This recipe is for Barm Brack, not BRAN brack. My grandmother had this exact recipe, she was Irish
—–Yes, I know Jed! (See my own comments.) It’s our family name for it and too complicated to change all the titles and links now. I have used the words Barm Brack myself so they will be picked up by search engines.
h/e

I use Molasses sugar and a swig of rum or brandy or sherry, depending on my mood. Whichever I use, it never seems to last long, particularly if my brother is staying
—– Sounds a really good idea. The molasses sugar will make it taste much more like a malt loaf I should think and it would be lovely and sticky. Our local ethnic supermarkets sell some interesting molasses variants including carob and date. As for the alcohol, great, but not rum for me thanks!
h/e

With apologies to my family …

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